This may have been Mal Waldron’s last recording;
he died in December of 2002. He was one of the most experienced
of jazz pianists and worked with the best of singers, Billie Holiday,
Etta Jones and Abbey Lincoln, have all benefited from his talents
as an accompanist. He has also worked in the bands of many of
the biggest names in jazz, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Steve
Lacey on the cutting edge and Gene Ammons, Ike Quebeck and Sonny
Stitt, so he knew how to swing as well! He describes accompanying
singers as laying down a carpet for them to walk, which he does
very effectively for the very talented Judi Silvano on this album.
Both artists have a classical musical training and that shows
in the polish of their performance. On the other hand it probably
causes their approach to the music to be a bit heavy. Judy is
described as a fun-loving native Philadelphian, but if this album
has a problem, it is that there ain’t a lot of fun around. It
is all very worthy, but only Cattin’ and A Time for Duke gave
me a lift. The last track is a fine piece of creative work however
and Judy has done a fine job on getting Mal’s story into song.

This is a very accomplished piece of work, but
I would love to hear Judi work with a top jazz trio, not trying
to be too profound. The world has lost one of its finest jazz
pianists with the passing on of Mal Waldron.